6 Predicted Technology Trends For 2018

2017 left us with a smart speakers, virtual reality and the release of several new phones and tablet devices. Whether you are particularly interested in technology or not, it affects all of us. Technology is a major part of our lives both at home, at work, and in business. It affects how society interacts with each other. For a business, it is always great to keep track of how technology is evolving so that you use to your advantage to stay ahead of the game.

5G

We all know what 4G is – Well 5G is in preparation for the next step. 5G will result in higher wireless speeds, capacities and lower latency. It will be fast internet, with the potential to be almost 10 times faster than 4G. There will be fewer delays in some of the items they power, like computers, phones, tablets, wireless virtual reality or autonomous vehicles. It is predicted that a 5G network may even be in place as early as by the end of 2019. 5G will revolutionise how developers create apps and how consumers use the internet and stream content.

Smart Systems

The last 10 years have seen multiple releases of new smartphones, tablets, smart tv’s even smart kitchen appliances such as the newer Thermomix with it’s recipe chip and smartphone apps. Most people can even pay for things now using their smartphones! As more and more “smart” technology evolves we really come to rely on it and how it integrates within our daily lives. It will be exciting to see what new smart innovations occur in 2018.

Artificial Intelligence

It is predicted that Artificial intelligence will be incorporated into more and more technology in 2018. Whether that be in smart home appliances, apps, digital personal assistants and even autonomous vehicles. So far artificial intelligence has developed through machine learning algorithms – this will create the ability to recognise user preferences and behavioural patterns. As artificial intelligence evolves, it could have the potential to replace more and more human workers in future. On one hand this is a positive, because less staff is less overheads for a business, but on another hand, should we really be replacing more humans with machines?

The Power of Data

Every organisation has realised the importance of consumer and potential customer data. 2018 will see data collection as a huge priority for marketing. As most people are relying on digital services for most of their daily tasks, and some even now talking to their smart speakers – companies will soon have more access to large amounts of personal data. Yes this is great for marketing and reaching the right target audiences. But at the same time this can also be detrimental to future privacy.

Conversations with our devices?

Voice recognition software is improving day by day. In some ways it is even more efficient than human transcribers! Perhaps in 2018 we may even be able to communicate with our devices in two-way conversation as technology keeps evolving.

User interfaces will keep evolving

With the increase in the use of smart speakers, improved voice search capabilities and with the rise of mobile devices the amount of users implementing searches via desktop devices are declining. It has become no longer necessary to always look at a computer screen to input search data. It really makes creators and developers have to rethink and keep evolving their techniques and ideas for the ease of use and target audience.

As 2018 unfolds it will be fascinating to see what other technology trends emerge and progress and how it affects not only our day to day lives but how we conduct business within the future.